Negotiating Ashwin, Jadeja the main challenge: Karunaratne

KOLKATA: After the first day’s play of the warm-up match between Sri Lanka and Board President’s XI, Lankan opener Dimuth Karunaratne said the main challenge for the visitors would be to negotiate the Indian spin duo of R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the Tests.

The left-hander, who retired after getting a 50, fielded various questions related to the series and Sri Lankan cricket.

Good outing for batters: We need a bit of confidence. Only Angelo (Mathews) and Rangana (Herath) have played here before. Nobody else played here. It’s better to get some confidence in these conditions.

Tackling Shami and Umesh: I have played them in the last series. Have a few plans. I know what they are going to do.

Quality of BPXI bowling: It’s all about runs…They bowled really well and in good areas. But they didn’t give us left-arm spinners. It’s not easy. They will definitely play with Jadeja and maybe Kuldeep with Ashwin.

Scoring a hundred against India in Lanka: That hundred helped me a lot to take some confidence to Pakistan. It was not an easy wicket to bat on in the second innings. I was determined to get some runs, especially against Ashwin. I played a lot of sweeps and reverse sweeps and they had to change the field position. That’s my style to play… That’s my game plan.

Disrupting Indian bowlers’ plans: If you need to change the field you have to do something extra. I know Jadeja and Ashwin are both hungry for wickets. Every time they bowl it’s about sticking to the basics. If I don’t give them any chance, they will try to do something else. If it does not work, I will think out of the box and give some extra pressure to bowlers.

On the possibility of Chandika Hathurusinghe joining as coach: I’ve no idea about it. If he comes, he knows most of guys. I have played under him at provincial level, so it’s good for us.